It's Just Different

"It's Just Different" is the sixth studio album from Finnish-American rapper Lil Squeaky, released on July 22, 2022. It includes features from Mr Ice, Kenny Mgee, Koffdrop, Lil Mosquito Disease, White Fury, WT, CRZFawkz, and Beetlebat. The project is far more pop-oriented than previous Squeaky releases. It is seen as Beetle's first impression as a musical artist. Prior to its release, Squeaky had begun to tease the release of numerous pop songs billed as "fun summer bangers," with those being "One Bent Knee" and "What Happened?"

It received extremely positive reception as fans called it catchy, consistent and very unique for Squeaky's career. The songs across the album received significantly higher streaming numbers over their first weekend than songs from other Squeaky albums would, with some predicting that It's Just Different will be Squeaky's most successful album.

Background
Following the success of Art, Squeaky began producing for several other artists and recording several feature verses for other artists. His next single was the Lil Cox joint track "Who Da F?ck Is Pillsbury DoughBoy"; though the song debuted in the top 20, it ultimately underperformed, partially due to releasing randomly on a Sunday. Squeaky's next single, "One Bent Knee" featuring Beetlebat, was far more successful and well-received, with many praising the 90s pop-R&B style and the song's strength as a single. Lil Squeaky has not stated if either of these singles are for a project. Squeaky also hinted at transitioning to pop rap in the near future, particularly after the warm reception of One Bent Knee. Squeaky's next single release was "What Happened" featuring Kenny Mgee, released on June 24. The song, which took heavy influence from indie pop, was generally well received and is currently the subject of several playlisting strategies by Squeaky. Around this same time, Hood Guy performed a publicity stunt on Twitter in which he replied to every tweet he saw with a clip of his verse in the Only One music video, which had released on the same day as One Bent Knee. This stunt, in conjunction with the clip accumulating many views on TikTok, resulted in the music video for Only One gaining many more views, becoming the third time the song rebounded in popularity. Hood Guy attempted another publicity stunt by taking to SoundCloud to repeatedly state that he carried Squeaky on the song.

In late spring of 2022, Squeaky began the rollout for his next project which at the time was titled "Based Rockstar". The project was stated to be very punk inspired and there were several songs created for it before Squeaky would eventually cease work on it due to struggling to make an entire album using punk instrumentals. Squeaky's most recent compilation of scrapped songs, Months After Menace 2 Society, contained several of the finished punk songs, such as "Punk" featuring Beetlebat, "Diamonds" featuring CRZFawkz, and "Based Rockstar." The scrapping of the pop punk album would lead to the creation of his sixth studio album It's Just Different which would be a pop album. Prior to its release, Squeaky had begun to tease the release of numerous pop songs billed as "fun summer bangers," with the singles "One Bent Knee" and "What Happened?" being far more pop-oriented than previous Squeaky releases. It's Just Different was announced the week before it came out, and the album was released on July 22 to extremely positive reception as fans called it catchy, consistent and very unique for Squeaky's career.

Singles
"One Bent Knee" was released on June 10, 2022, as the lead single for the album. It features American rapper beetlebat. The song received positive feedback from critics and fans. The song peaked at No. 1 on the Flex Entertainment Hot 100, becoming Squeaky's first number one single. It was certified Platinum by Flex Entertainment.

"What Happened" was released on June 24, 2022, as the second single for the album. It features Scottish rapper Kenny Mgee. The song received mixed feedback from critics and fans. The song peaked at No. 4 on the Flex Entertainment Hot 100. It was certified Gold by Flex Entertainment. A remix of the single with Koffdrop and Lil Mosquito was featured on the album.

"Feel Too Good" was released on July 29, 2022, as the third single for the album. It features American rapper Mr Ice. The song received critical acclaim from critics and fans. The song debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the Flex Entertainment Hot 100. It was a massive hit on the Braeden's Most Played Songs chart, debuting at No. 3. It later rose to the top spot, becoming Squeaky's second number one hit after "Just For Show." It is the third Flex Entertainment song to reach number one with Squeaky tying Mosquito for the most number one hits. It was certified Gold by BMP.

"Blazing Hearts" was released on August 3, 2022, as the fourth single for the album. The song received critical acclaim from critics and fans. The song peaked at No. 10 on the Flex Entertainment Hot 100,

Critical Reception
The album was met with positive reviews from critics, with many considering to be his best album since "God Mode." It was described by beetlebat as "wholesome summer pop tunes with good vibes."

It currently has a 78 on AlbumOfTheYear from 18 users and a 4.00 on RateYourMusic from 4 users.

Chart performance
The album was a commercial success with every song from the project landing in the top twenty-five on its first tracking week. The songs across the album received significantly higher streaming numbers over their first weekend than songs from other Squeaky albums would, with some predicting that It's Just Different will be Squeaky's most successful album. Famous computer user TheDankestMeme called it Squeaky's "most consistent album since God Mode;" filmmaker and featured artist Beetlebat described it as a wholesome collection of pop songs and Squeaky's most consistent album; and label owner Lil Mosquito Disease called it Squeaky's best album to date, allegedly saying his old favorite God Mode "is basically useless now since It's Just Different is so much better."

It's Just Different debuted at number one on the Braeden's Most Played Albums chart with 400,000 units sold, his biggest sales week ever. It became his second number one album and eleventh top ten entry. He becomes the second Flex Entertainment artist with two number one albums along with Lil Mosquito Disease. The album would stay at number one for two additional weeks, selling over 300,000 units each. It tied "Infestation" by Lil Mosquito Disease for the Flex album with the most weeks at number one. It eventually broke the record by adding three additional weeks at number one; six weeks at number one in total. It has lasted eighteen weeks in the top ten, tying his own album "God Mode" for the Flex album with the most weeks in the top ten. It was certified 3x Platinum by BMP. It was ranked as the seventh best-selling album on the BMP chart for 2022.

The songs on It's Just Different all received consistently high streaming numbers for Lil Squeaky's standards, with even deep cuts performing better than various singles released by Squeaky over the years. In the week following the album's release, "One Bent Knee" and "Feel Too Good" received roughly 400 and 350 streams on Spotify in that week alone, far higher than Squeaky's normal weekly streaming numbers and beating out first-week streams of other singles released by larger Flex artists around the same time. These two songs charted at numbers one and two respectively on the Hot 100 the following week as a result.

Track Listing

 * 1) "Feel Too Good" (feat. Mr Ice) - 3:38
 * 2) "Stop Staring" - 2:57
 * 3) "Estonian Cruise" - 3:07
 * 4) "Deeply Skeptical" - 3:06
 * 5) "What Happened - Remix" (feat. Kenny Mgee, Koffdrop, & Lil Mosquito Disease) - 4:27
 * 6) "Rollin' in the Breeze" - 3:04
 * 7) "I've Seen It" - 2:51
 * 8) "What You Do To Me" (feat. White Fury) - 2:21
 * 9) "Blazing Hearts" (feat. WT & CRZFawkz) - 3:18
 * 10) "Change Your Life" - 2:54
 * 11) "One Bent Knee" (feat. beetlebat) - 2:54